Netanyahu apologizes for police cover-up in Al-Qiyan case

Yaqoub Abu Al-Qiyan, who was shot dead by police in 2017 during a riot by Israeli Bedouin against the razing of a village, was accused of killing an officer while ramming his car into a police squad. At the time, the police commissioner Alsheikh branded him a terrorist. Although the state prosecutor, Shay Nitzan, strongly criticized the commissioner’s conduct as “scandalous,” he nonetheless closed the file on the case, explaining that exposing police misconduct was against the public interest and could undermine “other cases,” a veiled reference to the graft probes against PM Binyamin Netanyahu. The prosecutor later admitted that Abu Qiyan was no terrorist. It turned out that he lost control of his vehicle and accidentally hit a police officer after being shot by mistake.

In a televised briefing on the coronavirus crisis, the prime minister apologized to the Abu Al-Qiyan family for the “coverup” by the police and prosecution, maintaining that their conduct provided further evidence in support of his charge of “political contamination” in the corruption cases brought against him..